German retail sales fall, largest since Jan 2012

EmeseBartha

FRANKFURT--German retail sales in July posted the biggest monthly decline in real terms since January 2012, the country's statistics office said Friday.

Retail sales in July fell 1.4% compared with the previous month in real, calendar- and seasonally adjusted terms, sharply underperforming expectations for a 0.0% reading in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts. The data followed a revised increase of 1.0% in June, from a first estimate of 1.3% rise.

On an annual basis, retail sales were up 0.7% in real terms in July, the statistics office Destatis said. In the first seven months, retail sales grew 1.3% in real terms compared with the same period of last year.

German consumers may have to carry more of the load in Europe's biggest economy, which shrank 0.6% on an annualized basis--or 0.2% quarterly--between April and June after a strong start to the year.

Germany's closely watched Ifo business confidence reading fell for a fourth straight month in August, with the business climate for manufacturing hitting its lowest level since July 2013.

Market research group GfK's consumer climate indicator, released Wednesday, showed that German consumers have also grown more pessimistic. GfK said income expectations and willingness to buy have fallen slightly, while economic expectations "completely collapsed" in light of the intensified geopolitical risks.

The economic expectations suffered the greatest slump since 1980, GfK said. The group added, however, that this hasn't had much of an impact on the propensity to spend. Consumers appear to be basing their spending decisions on stable employment conditions, and low interest rates and inflation, rather than the "ever more unstable" international environment, the group said.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.